The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s nascent anti-trust body, has set in motion a process to train its professionals with the best global practices.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s nascent anti-trust body, has set in motion a process to train its professionals with the best global practices.

Experts from USA’s Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice will train CCI’s professionals in India as cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving Indian companies gather steam.

Next month, a group of 12 CCI employees will visit Washington to get a first hand exposure on how international competition law functions in a regulated environment without upsetting the broader growth objectives of an industrialised economy.

"For us, this is a new domain and we want to provide the best training to our staff so that as we can handle all the cases and provide the best judgements," Dhanendra Kumar, chairman, CCI told Hindustan Times.

Last week, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that entities against which complaints have been made to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) do not have the right to be heard while the body decides on the legitimacy of these complaints.

Experts have interpreted the judgement as a demonstration of the robustness of India’s competition law framework.

As many as 118 cases have been referred to the CCI of which 28 have been closed.

Kumar said it was important to train CCI’s staff on a continuous basis as M&As in industries take place through complex models of consolidation.

The commission has 122 expert level posts such as economists, financial analysts, legal professionals and human resource experts Of these, only 47 posts have been filled up with professionals drawn from both within the government on deputation as well engaged from the private sector.